does anyone on here have any experience with these engines? ive tracked down all the inards for a rebuild and its at the machine shop. it looks like it could really benefit from a conventional relief and port job. it has almost what you could call a dam between the valves and cylinder due to the depth and angle of the valves. i like to stay conservative when relieving the big v8's to keep compression up but it looks like a real impediment to flow on this . its getting an old 312 lift isky cam, new offy heads alum flywheel, dual 81's etc any advice would be appreciated....
As you just noticed...information on 60's is realdamnscarce. I'm at work and don't have access, but I believe I only know of a couple of articles with some scanty info on this: I think there was an article probably by Francisco in an early HRM, probably '50-51, and a couple of paragraphs in one of HRM's early books, possible "How to HR your car" from about '52... It was one of the books that had a short section on every popular engine. Probably California Bill's Ford manual, too... I think the only one I ever worked on, about a hundred years ago, had a conventional relif job.
I've never built a V860, nor do I know anyone personally who has. But based on my research over the years, I think most L-head designs benefit from relief work. Were I building any type of flathead from I-6 to Briggs & Stratton, I'd probably run a mild relief...
The midget racers in the 40s and 50s hopped up these engins to an almost unbelievable state. When properly done they were probably the only engine available that could compete with the Offies. Vic Edelbrock campaigned a whole fleet and did very well with them. There are web sites devoted to antique midgets and you could probably get some good advice there. HAMBer Racer 5C had extensive experience racing midgets and he may be able to give you some guidence. Good luck, Ted
Don't hog out the ports!!! The motor will fall flat on its face! A mild relief job might be O.K. Vic Edelbrock Sr. ran a very successful midget with a Bobby Meeks built 60. I once heard a rumor that they installed SMALLER than stock valves in this motor. Port velocity is critical. Of course their secret was a new fuel called nitromethane! I would try to get in touch with Mr. Meeks through Edelbrock and pick his brain. Phil
It's been a long time since I looked into a 60, so I went and found some pics. The shape is much like that used on 100's, and removing that area is NOT a slam-dunk decision. The real truth could only be found with a flow bench and dyno, but I did a lot of reading (cheaper than flow bench and dyno, but only takes you so far...) on this after finding that Holleran did NOT recommend relieving flatheads. Most of my theory is derived from Yunick and Vizard books...Yunick says you can only turn the air about 15 degrees at a time...hence the general use of 60-45-30 cuts in valve seat areas...so air is coming off the valve seat area with a strong UPWARD component in flatheads if this is so, more or less matching the cast in cup...and relieving should be done up where it hits the head! This corresponds to racing developement in 351C and 250 Chevy six heads, in which low-lying areas of ports are FILLED, because not only can't the air flow through and turn out of those areas, they are a drag on the good parts of the ports...so think over what you believe air can do coming out of the port...or go buy the right stuff and spend 30 years flogging 60 blocks so you actually know what is happening there! It would be really interesting to check those early articles and see what people were doing when they were raced, and I am sure the hot dogs would have tried with and without relief, as some of the issues are obvious. This is an area of serious controversy... Another thinking point: Advocates of relieving ONLY used it on slant-valve engines like flatheads, as vertical valve engines (B's, most inlines) could not use any area that low from valve edge...so they were considering this same issue. Holleran actually embellishes the cup area with a cut by large, almost flat seat grinding wheel to add another transition angle into cup...stopping before reaching cylinder.
filling the low areas of the ports sounds like what mike davidson advocates. ill just smooth the ports and not hog em out. personally i prefer to just smooth the area between ports and cylinder. id like to read some of those early articles on the subject but most of the old racers kept that info top secret . looks like ill have to pocket the heads for valve clearance tho. got any info on isky 602b mushroom tappet cam? lift and lash settings by chance?
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